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Wednesday, March 29, 2017

I needed a break from the present Calidar project. Here's the result: Glantri's Great School of Magic. Hope enjoy the greater detail than what was on GAZ3's poster map. I tweaked a few things but I think you'll be fine with the result. Click on the map to enlarge the image. This one was produce at 600 dpi, 8.5 x 11. Cheers!

Thursday, March 16, 2017

So, here I am trying to piece togetherCalidar'sDreams of Aerie, hacking away at a treasure trove of floor plans and getting a sense of how text and graphics fit together. The first two chapters were easy enough, though big charts became necessary to sort of throngs of personalities making up the flying circus staff. About a hundred NPCs belong to one of several professional guilds (acrobats, beast handlers, freaks, laborers, etc.) Each may also be aligned with one of three secret societies. If this weren't enough, some folk are cursed with an affliction which comes in addition to guilds and secret societies affiliations: ...plenty right here for referees to sink their fangs into. Illustrations will be needed to give a face to the most important characters. Kickstarter allowing, these may be color art (crossing my fingers.) Naturally, cover art will give a view of the circus, and I do have an artist already waiting to get started.

I
grew up in France (mostly), England, Morocco, Washington DC, and Texas. I speak mostly French and English, with a little Spanish, Portuguese, and German. Returning to Nice for my education, I graduated from the lycée hotelier in 1977; I got passionately interested in wargames when I was attending the Lycée ... primarily in Avalon Hill games like Kriegspiel, Luftwaffe, Third Reich, and Panzer Leader
— the classics. There were, of course, no French editions of these
games at the time, so I had to learn the American versions. I loved to travel, so I studied hotel management and worked as a concierge in both France and California.

While living in San Francisco I discovered the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set, and when I returned to Paris I joined my first regular Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) group. I started writing articles on D&D and AD&D for French gaming magazine Casus Belli, and there learned that TSR
was looking for someone to translate the games into French. Well, I
spoke and wrote both languages, and I knew the games, so a request reached Gary Gygax.
By a coincidence, he was just about to come to Paris on business, and
so we set up a meeting. I must have done OK, because he offered me the
job. After a few months of doing translation work in Nice, TSR requested I move to the home office in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. For a sun-loving Mediterranean like me, Wisconsin in February was a bit of a shock.

After working for two years as a translator, I transferred to TSR's Games Division in July
1985 as an Acquisitions Coordinator, in charge of contracting
freelance writers. I also did game design, including adventure
modules CM7, Tree of Life; M1, Into the Maelstrom; and co-authorship of DL12, Dragons of Faith.

I worked on a number of products for the basic Dungeons & Dragons game, including writing the "Voyage of the Princess Ark" series for Dragon magazine, a monthly feature that lasted about three years, as well as other products for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game. I was the Basic D&D line Product Manager for years, during which the beloved D&D Gazetteers and the Rules Cyclopedia were published. I also worked at TSR as the director of production planning and head of games acquisitions.

My son Noel came to this world when TSR went bankrupt. One of the outcomes of the happy event in my life was that I could not follow my colleagues to Renton, Wa, at WotC, which had salvaged most of TSR's creative team. My writing years went on hiatus while I explored other avenues. After some time at US Web near Milwaukee and United Airlines at O'Hare, I'm now back in Wisconsin to re-invent myself and do what I really want to do! This now includes the creation of the World of Calidar.